Common ice skates used in skating have an elongate blade which is arranged to slide along the ice surface. Attempts to minimise the friction between the blade and the ice using heat are shown a number of US patents. The blade when of the heated type also must be mounted in an effective manner which takes into account the provision of the heating and control circuits which become part of the system. A number of prior patents show mounting systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,921 (Czaja) issued Nov. 2, 1962 discloses a resistant heating element attached along a top of the blade on a skate with a battery mounted in the open area above the blade underneath the connection of the blade to the boot.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,927 (Tvengsberg) issued February 18 discloses a similar arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,305 (Tabar) issued Aug. 15, 1995 discloses a heating system primarily for skis which appears to be speculative in nature and includes a number of different arrangements which could be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,209 issued Dec. 30, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,618 issued Nov. 16, 2004 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,735 issued Jan. 24, 2006 all by Furzer and all assigned to the present assignee disclose various arrangements of heated skate blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,749 (Olivieri) issued Feb. 18, 1992 discloses a skate blade mounting system where a metal blade has hook portions along its top edge which are pulled tight onto the molded plastic base by a screw and lever arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,156 (Cann) issued Sep. 28, 1993 discloses a skate blade with a replaceable runner which is hooked at the font end and fastened by a screw at the rear.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,434 (Wurthner) issued Jul. 23, 1998 discloses a skate blade formed of a plastics material with a metal runner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,835 (Lyden) issued Feb. 25, 2003 discloses a skate blade system where the blade can be manufactured from various composites and can be mounted using a hinging system.
US Published Application 2005/0029755 (Fask) published Feb. 10, 2005 discloses a skate blade including an injection molded steel runner which is screw fastened onto a plastic holder.